Snowdrops
by The Indigo Crown
Summary: "You never know who will end up so close to your heart..." Veser/Ples
1. Prolog

_Hanna, in a matter of speaking, is like the White Rabbit. Follow him down to his office and you'll tumble into a brick wall of reality that you can only hope is Wonderland. _

_Because unlike Wonderland, the world Hanna resides in and the creatures he gets involved with are very much real._

_Of course Conrad is really the only one that is still slightly new to this fact. He's still trying to get used to it, unicorns and zombies weren't something they teach to most in school._

_But its not like most of us can't relate to him, at some point we learned that we where different, or that there where others that where different from us. In Hannas and Worth's case they where pulled into the world of the super natural. Toni, Veser, and …. ( in a manner of speaking ) where born into it, they had no veil covering their eyes like humans did._

_As for me, well, that is for another day. Right now, I'm very much focused on a series of events that has happened in the last month or so._

Veser, he was so young. He was young when he had first met him, and he would always seem young to Ples. They had known each other for some time at this point, but they didn't really know much about each other. They where merely two people who happened to be friends with a certain red haired shrimp who liked to run into mythical creatures head first. Actually, that was what he was doing right now along with his zombie sidekick.

So why where they sitting together?

Hanna had always been the one who invited people. He called them together then poof, they just all appeared at some bar or café and chilled for a few hours. **The Rejects of the Off Centered Table**, Conrad called them, but only under his breath and only when he was sure no one could here, which was actually almost never, so he really only got to say it once.

And he was on the toilet.

And that was hours AFTER he had been sitting at that table.

But Conrad and his failing ability to make snaky comments that are based off of books isn't all that important. What is important is the fact that Hanna, the glue that keeps them all together, was away. Nether of them had any excuse to be around each other. Yet there they where, chilling (well really spacing out and not saying much because they had no idea what to say) at a table in a café.

It is in this café where the events of that month of March start, the same ones that Ples will later look over with bloodshot eyes and sleepless nights.

But that comes later.


	2. A Faint Ticking

Veser was never very big on plans, at least when it came to making them. If someone would take their time to invite him to things, sure he'd go, but other then that his day was open for….whatever. Hanna and the rest of the gang hadn't been hanging out lately, for whatever reasons the workload for Hanna seemed to be picking up (Veser had mentally guessed it was due to the up coming spring solstice, but said nothing), Toni was working two jobs, Worth was….well…in his cave, and Conrad was never very big on hanging out with people in the first place. The Zombie didn't even come into the equation, he was always with Hanna, and really didn't seem interested being anywhere without him. A single though of Ples ran across the young mans mind, but it vanished almost instantly. They where not friends, and the older man hardly joined them for anything, only on special occasion or if the gang happened to run across him.

So that meant that there wasn't going to be any phone calls from anyone today Veser didn't really mind all that much, cause hey, more time for him to do his stuff, but it did make things a bit…boring. So after a few hours of watching TV and surfing the web (during this time he made an attempt at watching porn but it wasn't really stream correctly and they where all saying things in German so it ultimately failed) the fey lifted his ass out of his chair and journeyed to the nearest coffee shop. It was chilly, spring had yet to come to the fair city he resided in, and giant chunks of snow that the plows had smashed on street corner where hardly melting, looking like giant frozen turds. His nose and cheeks where slowly tinted pink from the wind hat nipped at them, causing Veser to pull his coat around him. Normally he would have just worn his signature hoodie but it was too chilly to wear it today, and he really didn't feel like freezing his ass off.

Melodies formed in his ears, the volume mildly loud, so passerbyers could hear it, but not loud enough that they could sing along to the worlds. He bobbed his head slightly to the beat, barely paying attention to the world around him. It was late afternoon, the sky a pasty grey with smears of white here and there. By the time Veser made it to the coffee shop, his nose and ears where completely pink, and he was silently cursing himself for not wearing gloves but was happy to be in the warmth of the store.

The coffee shop was located on the outskirts where the slums meet the nicer part of the city. Veser had only been there a handful of times with Hanna and company, but never really thought to go by himself before. There was nothing really different about it, it had plain drinks, overly complicated drinks, and pastries that looked good but would seal your organs. Veser ignored this, ordering some cake and a cup of coffee.

"Size?" the woman behind the counter asked, turning towards him, hand outstretched to the cups so she could snatch it up as quickly as possible.

"Medium," he muttered, refusing to say the overly fruity name the store had renamed medium to sound more modern. The woman rolled her eyes, but put together his order as quickly as she could. Veser chewed on the side of his mouth while he waited, scanning the café for an open seat. It was pretty slow today, a few couple sat around, some guy with a laptop was hammering away at the key bored, another male was covering his face with his open newspaper, a few teenagers giggling over nothing…..

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

The hell?

Veser looked around, trying to find the coocoo clock, but only found sleek digitals clocks on the walls.

Tic.

Tic.

Tic.

Another scan, but he couldn't find the sores of the ticking. The woman handed him his foods stuffs, which he gruffly took, and wandered into the seating area.

The ticking only got louder as Veser went further in, passing the man with the laptop (Veser snorted when he saw the man was playing D&D) and almost spilling his coffee on one of the teenage girls heads when she leaned over to flirt with him (he didn't catch most of it, he was too busy laughing at laptop guy). The man with the newspaper took no notice of the younger man, shaking his paper a little (why people with newspapers did this Veser didn't know) but enough to make out his face. Half moon spectacles, scruffy graying hair, along with that constant ticking….

He should have known it was Ples.

"Hey," the Halfling greeted the older man with a grin, plopping down onto a leather chair across fro him, sinking into its cushion. Ples jumped a little, stammering nonsense while adjusting his glasses and blinking. Veser only grinned wider, showing off his rather pointy teeth.

"G-good day Veser." Ples greeted him, trying to straightening himself out, cheeks slightly flushed from embarrassment. The greeting cause him to blink, looking slightly puzzled at Ples words.

"You remember my name?" He rose one of his eyebrows, surprised. They never really talked when they all got together, Ples usually chatted with …. or Worth, sometimes Toni (and Hanna, don't forget Hanna) but like Conrad Veser never got the vibe he wanted to have long conversations with the guy. That had to do more with his age then Ples's personality, but the young fey thought nothing of it.

"Of c-course," Ples stammered, looking at him like he had three heads. "Why wouldn't I?" Veser could only reply with a shrug, not having an answer himself.

**AN:** Alright so some of you may have seen this on Deviant Art. That's because I posted it there. XD It's funny, I requested to have HINABN as a subcategory and I don't even think to post my story until like, two months later. Pfft. Oh well.


	3. Bitches Love Him

Today was the first Tuesday of the month.

It was on the first Tuesday of every month I was allowed to take time off from my place of work and relax. I wasn't the only one, my whole sector at work had off (we all rotated), next Tuesday another sector would have off, and another one after that.

The tiny break made little difference in my daily life. It proved a moment to breath, but not enough to stop thinking about work.

Taking a sip of tea, I absent-mindedly looked over the newsprint trying to find any articles of interest. Again there was no mentioned of a certain twenty something young man with flaming red hair that saved the day. Hanna never seemed to mind, or at least he never showed it, and even if a story did catch wind the other community would make sure it was never published.

Some things are better left alone.

Setting down the tea I went back to actually reading the paper flipping the pages now and then, ignoring the ads for various unimportant things before settling on an article about deer in Asia that sported fangs. The article was quite long, and very informative (to me at least) It was also incredibly intriguing, and before I knew I had become completely absorbed in it.

"Hey," I jumped, started; not knowing anyone had been around me. My glasses had become crooked in the processes, and I hurriedly adjusted them. Words fell out of my mouth, forming lines of gibberish that I couldn't seem to stop.

It took me a minute to realize who was sitting across from me.

"G-good day Veser." I stuttered, slightly annoyed at myself for the stutter and the slight flushing of my cheeks (purely from embarrassment). He looked rather surprised that I had remembered who he was, titling his head a bit to get a better look at me.

"You remember my name?" He rose one of his eyebrows, surprise evident in his voice.

"Of c-course," I stammered, looking at him quizzically. "Why wouldn't I?" He only shrugged, leaning back into the large chair

Veser. How could I forget Veser? He was cunning, he was crude, he was idiotic, he was loud, he was vulgar he was perverted; he was almost everything I was not.

And perhaps that was the reason I didn't forget who he was.

Then again it was hard to forget any of them, their odd qualities made them stand out from the crowd. But perhaps that was just because they seemed to highlight their flaw and oddities rather then hide them, like most did. Snapping out of my thoughts I stole another glace at Veser, only to find he was staring at me, wearing a rather perplexed expression.

Oh.

I must have zoned out for a bit.

Noticing that I was no longer staring off into space Veser spoke.

"Sooooooooo," he leaned back into the chair, half looking at the cup in his hand and half at the teenage girls a few tables back. "Whadahyea do for a livin?" I felt a small twitch of a smile at how he smashed his words together.

"I'm an accountant." Well that was the simple answer.

"Ah." Was his reply, clearly uninterested.

"And you?" I asked, smiling a little.

He looked over at me again having been distracted by the gaggle of girls who where currently debating what was hot and what was not in a very loud shrill fashion. "Huh?" Veser blinked, taking in the question. "Oh." He shrugged. "I'm a student, but I do odd jobs here and there. Yard work, crap like that." His eyes had drifted back to his cup, staring into the depths as if trying to read a hidden message. While he tried to think up questions that could only be found in the deepest depths of coffee I took a moment to think over his answer.

So he did odd jobs. And he was a student. From what the others told me about his godfather and the whole...adventure that went along with it, he most likely went to a school in the city and lived at home the majority of the time. The jobs probably took place over winter break and summer vacation when he had large periods of time to do nothing. Well more then nothing now that he was friends with Hanna.

Because no one can do "nothing" when _that_ young man was in the picture. Not if he could help it.

_" ....bitches love me cause they know that I can rock.... " _The sudden slightly garbled ring tone made me jump, pushing me out of my thoughts. Veser had also been surprised by his cell phone, fumbling to get a hold of it.

**" Hanna "** He grumbled after fishing it out of his pants pocket. **"You changed my ringtone."** A pause. "Hey, it's not my fault you never changed it back." An annoyed expression. "I said I was sorry geeeeeeeeeez." He rolled his eyes, making a gesture with his hand that meant Hanna was being overly talkative again. "No I....I....what? No. Hanna. No. Noooooooooooooooooo. Wait? What? What the hell is Katamari?" Now Veser just looked confused, and ready to hang up. "No I have never....since when did you get a PS2? You're at Confags ?" A devilish grin flew onto his face. "Seriously? I'll be there in ten." He then promptly shut his phone. "Hanna's over at Confags and asked me to drop by," Veser explained, assuming I hadn't been paying attention to his conversation even though he was no less then five feet away. "So I'm gunna hop over there," He had a thumbing gesture over his shoulder, and then paused, waiting for some sort of response.

"Ah." Was all I could manage to say, I wasn't offended or shocked, I just...didn't know how to reply. "H-have fun." I cracked a small smile. He sniffed, nodded, paused again, then muttered what I thought was "Yea," and took off, leaving a half eaten brownie behind.

AN: Woooo. Veser and Ples are hard to write man. D: The ringtone thing is a refrence to youtube . com/user/hannafalkcrossplay?feature=mhw4 . Take out the space kthax. C:


	4. Raving the Katmari

"CAN YOU TURN THAT DOWN?" Conrad hollered from his bedroom, head half sticking out from the door. Hanna and his ever present zombie pal had shown up an hour or so ago after Hanna's computer decided to crash. It had taken Conrad a few minutes to realize Hanna's computer really was broken and he did want his wimpy vampire friend to aid him.

But that wasn't why Hanna was still there. He had grown tired of watching Conrad pick at his laptop, and son found a dust covered PS2 on some random shelf_. "Friken sweet!"_ The red head had shouted_. " I haven't seen one of these in forever!"_ Conrad had ignored him, continuing to work on the lifeless computer.

Well until Hanna thrust a game in his face.

_"What's this?" _He asked the other male, who only scowled.

_"It's a game my parents got me a while back…s'called Katamari."_ Conrad shrugged, he had only played it once, and found it very irritating, stupid, and well….just plain old weird. Actually, he would later come to the conclusion that the game was foreshadowing how messed up his life would later be.

But that's just Conrad for you.

_"Whatdoyoudoinit?"_ Hanna had asked quickly, clearly already brimming with curiosity and excitement.

_"….you roll up stuff,"_ He pushed the younger an away_. "You can play it,"_ The vamp answered the question that was on the tip of the others young, sending him into a fit of smiles and giggles_." Just keep the volume low. And don't yell."_

Hanna had not kept the volume down,

He yelled quit often.

And laughed.

And just sat in awe in front of the game.

Which is why Conrad was currently screaming at him to shut the god damn game off if he was going to be annoying about it, it was like having Veser around.

And that's when Hanna called Veser.

"Sorry," Norman muttered, leaning on Conrad's doorframe. The other scowled, however he didn't seem to be mad at the undead man.

"For?" The pale man asked, shutting Hanna's now fixed computer.

"Not being able to prevent him from being so….."

"Annoying?"

"…..loud."

"." Conrad pushed up his glasses that had slipped down his nose. "That's what I get for hireling him." A sigh. "Just make sure…he doesn't brake anything."

"So were where you before?" Hanna asked, eyes fixated on the screen. His pale hands here moving the control sticks around, jamming them down every few seconds to get a speed boost on his trusted Katamari.

"Huh?" Veser looked over at the ginger, he had been too busty watching him roll up a giant gorilla to notice he was being talked to.

"Where," He interrupted his own sentence with a shout of joy that caused Conrad to scream at them to shut up. "Were you?"

"Chillin at a coffee shop. Was bored. Nothing interesting." A shrug and and s look to the side. For some reason Veser didn't really feel like giving Hanna details. He wasn't sure why, it wasn't that he was embarrassed he had talked with the older man earlier it just….was so out of character for the two to talk about their day in a none shouting normal way.

"Uh huuuuuuuuuuh," Hanna replied, clearly indicating that Veser should continue.

"……was just talking, watching some girls be stupid, eattin a brownie……the legal kind jackass," Veser grumbled once a tiny grin appeared on his friends face at the world "brownie." He REALLY looked like he wanted to drop the subject. It was awkward and weird, like walking on sand paper or licking the side of a glass in public. People wouldn't really judge you but you still felt weird about it.

Ples, in a manner of speaking, was Veser sandpaper, and the fact that the conversation was skimming the topic of said sandpaper was enough to send Veser in a state of mind where he would rather break something in Conrad's house to distract Hanna then talk about it.

That and he just flat out loved to piss off the pale undead man.

"Veser left?" Nathan asked is partner when he reentered the living room. While Hanna had been playing Katamari like no tomorrow, Fred had been talking to Conrad about things. Conversation wasn't awfully deep, but it was a change in pace for him.

The conversation that is.

"Mmmmmmhmmmm," Was his reply, eyes squinted, tongue sticking out of his mouth. "YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!" He exclaimed, almost throwing the controller into the wall when he flailed his arms. "I rolled up the WOOOOOOORLD!" A grin was plastered across his face, showing that he felt like he accomplished something.

Nancy would later find out that Hanna had beaten the majority of the game in the time span they where at Conrad's indicating the young man had some hardcore gaming skills.

"………Hanna…….." The red head looked over at the hallway where Conrad stood. "………why are their forks in the ceiling?"

AN: ;A; This one is bad. DI I can't write Hanna out very well or Conrad for that matter. The wording on this is off, sorry guys. Halfway though I was like "Wait....Hanna and Veser wouldn't have a heart to heart unless somethign hardcore happened which didn't happen sooooo...."


	5. Broken Bottles

He was failing math.

MATH.

How could he be failing math? I mean, it was all numbers and shit, counting and all the crap.

God dammit.

He couldn't get a tutor from the tutor center, they where basically his classmates and he didn't want to look like a complete idiot in front of them. The professor was out of the question; he was an ass (among other things). And he couldn't pay anyone to help him….hell, he was in college. So Veser tried his hardest not to think about it, especially when he was in the company of his friends. But of course the topic had to come up eventually, even if Veser didn't want it to, he couldn't ignore it forever. Which is where he is now, sitting on a chair looking frustrated and staring at his cheeseburger while Toni asked about college.

Fun times.

"So how's school been treatin you?" The werewolf asked him, twirling a straw rapper with her fingers.

"Fine," he grumbled, thinking up ways to change the topic of the conversation.

"Uh huh…. grades okay?" She rose an eyebrow, smirking to herself. She'd been to school once, she knew when someone wasn't having such a great time academically.

That and Veser just flat out sucked at hiding things.

"…..hrg….." was the others reply.

"….math or Spanish?" Toni simply asked, absent mildly tearing the rapper in half.

"……math." Veser grumbled, still boring holes into his cheese burger with his mind.

"You could always get a tutor," She offered He only shot her a look tat clear said no.

"What about like…leap frog for adults?" Hanna interjected excitedly from across the booth. Veser had gone along with the gang to get some eats, however he wasn't really eating.

"…what?" Veser furrowed his eyebrows and started at Hanna, wondering what the hell he was talking about.

"You could always ask your parents…….for….help…………………." Conrad gave up on his advice and went back to eating some of Hanna's fries. Bob only shrugged at Veser. He didn't remember going to college and had no advice for him.

To say the least, this night was extremely uneventful. However just because the gang wasn't having an extremely interesting time didn't mean that others where having the same issue.

Well not exactly.

Somewhere on the other side of the city a man with an overly loud pocket watch was deep in thought.

He was drunk. Totally smashed, out of it, and stank of something foul. Bottles scattered the floor, one broke when he stumbled and caused him to cut his hand. That hand was now bandaged and holding and empty glass that he could barely place on the nearby table, mind a million miles away from the current place he resided in.

The thing about alcoholics, is that they don't just _drink_. The drinking may start out from parties, or just hanging out with friends, but eventually it something to numb some fear o pain. It makes one forget for just a moment, while it rots you form the inside out. Ples Tibenoch was not an evil man, at least not in this dimension he wasn't, but he wasn't perfect. He had many reasons why he drank, well, he gave many reasons when worried co-workers asked but it really could have been a single reason. Of course it didn't really matter what the reason was, or how many, or little, reasons there where, not right now.

The issue at hand right now was that Ples was drunk.

Very drunk.

And he hadn't been this wasted in a very VERY long time.

So really it wasn't so much the drunk part but the "Something is very wrong with him and he's trying to deal with it by drinking" part.

Oh, and there's also the part about living alone and not letting people become aware that he's, you know, almost in a coma from liquor.

Somewhere in the back of my head there was a voice telling me to stop.

To get up.

To clean up.

To call a number.

To stop.

And another was telling me to stop all of this .

My life.

My heart.

My existence.

But I listened to nether of the voices, instead I stayed where I was, letting the ach of reject fade away completely. I could barely make out the words on the paper I clutched, my vision blurred even with my glasses on. For a second I forgot why the letter brought me so much pain, why it has caused this much poison to go into my body. Tentatively I un-folded it and took a peak, only to for the wave of pain to come back.

_"Dear ," it read. "The company is proud to say we've had you on the team for the part 30 years, you've been a wonderful accountant and a charming man to be around. However do to the current economic downfall that has cased a recession, we are sad to inform you that we can no long afford to pay your services._

_We thank you for your hard work and dedication…"_

He stopped reading, crumpling it into a wad and throwing it across the room.

That's right, he had been laid off.

They didn't even tell him at the office, he had no idea it was going to happen, they just kicked him out along with his income, leaving him to rot.

"Insolent assholes," he hissed into his knees, tears rimming swollen red eyes.

He wasn't sure he would survive the night.

**AN:** First of all this chapter is a bit of a downer, so sorry if you where looking for fun times. ID

Second, Ples is a known drinker, so don't be all THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN. He drinks, he drinks A LOT, so I mean, things like that could happen seeing as they happen to loads of people in life. No, this is not life, but still. ID

Third, mmmmhmmm, he got laid off. It was the only upsetting non hardcore thing I could think of. We don't know a lot about Ples so that was one of the few things I could use. I don't want to make up man random facts about him, I'm sorta waiting to learn more from the comic.

Forth, no he's not going to die. ID The man is just depressed, he'll sleep it off.

Yes, Veser can't count. :U ( Lies he can )


End file.
